


Seconds

by Decepticonsensual



Series: He Jests at Scars [6]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decepticonsensual/pseuds/Decepticonsensual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It may not be a personal enmity, like Optimus and Megatron's - but it's every bit as vicious.  And it will outlast planets, stars, and maybe even their respective factions.  Welcome to the shadow war of the seconds-in-command.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seconds

**Author's Note:**

> For a request on Tumblr with the prompt "last one standing". VERY slight mentions of violence/injuries.

It was always going to end like this.

Across eons, across galaxies; on Cybertron or Earth or Cybertron reborn.  Senate security versus rebel terrorist; second-in-command vs. second-in-command; ruler of the planet versus… well, rebel terrorist, tables turning round, and round, and round.  Deep inside, they both probably knew that they were going to outlast their masters; Optimus was always too much an idealist, Megatron too fond of leading from the front lines.  But Starscream and Prowl, they are shadowy creatures:  in back alleys on backwater worlds, they trade in words and information and suggestion, matching each other step for step, infiltration for infiltration, a sinuous, twisting, hateful tango that carries them across star systems and through time.

And right now, it’s down to just the two of them, leaders and armies long gone; they’re facing each other across a wasted stretch of land, blaster versus null ray, bodies held so tense that they tremble.  But Prowl’s blaster is out of charges, and Starscream knows it.  Red optics dart down the Autobot’s tattered frame, Starscream’s smirk showing just the tips of his dentae, and Prowl is ventilating raggedly as he meets that stare.  He braces his feet, hands spread, not about to die without a fight.

Starscream takes a step forward.

And the ground gives beneath him.

Later, when he wakes up, he’ll remember Prowl peering down at him from the lip of the pit trap (such a _stupidly_ simple ruse, though the electromagnets at the bottom were a sophisticated touch), and he’ll even recall, in a groggy way, that Prowl seemed to wink before he sped away.  But by the time Starscream extracts himself from the pit, Prowl will be long gone.

This is how it will end.

But it won’t be ending today.


End file.
